Day 61. You open MOS, then your email, then MOS again. Nothing. A friend of yours got his karta pobytu decision so fast it felt like a glitch. Another friend, from your old workplace, has been waiting for months and nobody can tell him why. So how long does a karta pobytu decision actually take in 2026, and what can you do when the wait runs past the date everyone quotes?
Short answer: the law says 60 days. Real life says 'it depends'. This article is about what it depends on, and what to do on day 61. We call the Polish residence card a TRC (temporary residence card) in some places and karta pobytu in others, because you will hear both.
So how long does a karta pobytu decision take by law?
Under the Act on Foreigners, the voivode should decide on a temporary residence permit within 60 days. Polish administrative courts cite art. 112a of the Act for this deadline, and they treat it as a special rule that takes priority over the general one-to-two-month limits in the Code of Administrative Procedure. Always check the current wording on gov.pl/web/cudzoziemcy, because the rules around foreigners have changed several times in the last two years.
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Two details matter more than the number itself. First, the 60 days do not always start the minute you press 'submit'. Courts have accepted that the clock can start later, for example after formal defects in the application are fixed. Second, 60 days is a deadline for the office to decide. It is not a promise that you will hold the plastic card on day 60. The decision comes first, and the card is produced and collected afterwards.
It helps to think of two separate clocks:
- Clock one: from a complete application to the decision. This is the 60 days the law talks about.
- Clock two: from the decision to a finished card and your appointment to collect it. This part is separate, so don't plan a flight around a guess.
If you want a longer walkthrough of the first weeks after filing, read Waiting for Your TRC in Poland? 60 Days by Law, and 5 Moves While You Wait.
Why is my TRC taking longer than 60 days?
Rarely because of one big problem. Usually because of one small thing nobody mentioned. These are the usual suspects:
- A formal defect in the file. If the office finds a missing document, a wrong form or an unreadable scan, it sends a request to complete the application. Until you answer correctly, the file is not 'complete', and the clock may not be running at all.
- An annex that somebody else must sign. Some routes need a signed annex from your employer, and student cases need one from the university. If that signature is late, your application is stuck before it begins.
- The switch to MOS 2.0. Since 27 April 2026, applications for temporary residence, permanent residence and EU long-term resident status are filed online only. Paper applications that had not reached the office by that date are not examined, and the old MOS accounts were deleted. If you applied around the switch, confirm that your case really exists in the new system.
- Workload at your voivodeship. Offices do not publish one tidy average, and we are not going to invent one for you.
The official explanation of the new system is on the Lower Silesian Voivodeship Office page on gov.pl. To read your own case status without guessing, use our guide How to Check Your MOS Case.
What does the zaświadczenie let you do while you wait?
Until this spring, proof of a timely application was a red stamp in your passport. With MOS 2.0 the stamp is being replaced by a zaświadczenie, a certificate with a QR code and an electronic seal. You download it from the system, but only after the office has checked your application for deadlines and formal defects. The official template says your stay is treated as legal from the day you filed. Not every case is handled the same way on the same day, so ask your office which document yours receives.
The certificate is not a travel pass. Before you book any ticket, read Can I Travel While Waiting for a Karta Pobytu? 4 Checks Before You Book. Whether you can keep working in the same job depends on your case, so ask before you change anything. Your visa and work-permit paperwork stay with your employer or the consulate. We take over at the residence card.
Here is an illustration, a composite and not a real client file. Ravi, a warehouse supervisor from Hyderabad, filed in MOS and saw nothing for ten weeks. He assumed the office was just slow. When we opened his case, the system showed a request to supplement documents that had gone to an old email address. He answered it within days, the file became complete, and we kept a ponaglenie ready for the date that mattered. The delay was never about Ravi's documents being wrong. It was about a message nobody read.
Day 61 with no decision: ponaglenie first, court second
There is an order to this, and it matters. Courts have rejected complaints about delay when the applicant skipped the first step. Here is the sequence:
- Check the real status in MOS and in your email, spam folder included. Look for any request to complete documents. If there is one, answer it first, because that request is what is actually holding your case.
- Count from the right date. Write down both the day you submitted and the day the office accepted a complete file. They are not always the same day.
- File a ponaglenie (art. 37 of the Code of Administrative Procedure). It is addressed to the higher authority, but you submit it through the voivodeship office that handles your case. State your dates, quote the deadline, and ask for the case to be resolved. Do not file it before the deadline has passed, because an office may leave an early ponaglenie unexamined.
- If the office stays silent, file a skarga na bezczynność lub przewlekłość (a complaint about inaction or excessive delay) with the voivodeship administrative court. The ponaglenie must come first. Courts have ordered offices to decide within a set period in cases like this.
- Keep copies and proof of every filing, with dates. If your case ever goes further, that paper trail is your evidence.
Is a skarga a magic wand? No. Nobody can promise you a date, and we won't. But it is the legal tool that exists for exactly this situation. More on the 60-day mark is in Poland TRC Processing Time 2026: 60 Days, Then What?.
Practical tip: Save a screenshot of your MOS case status every week, and keep two dates in one note on your phone: the day you submitted and the day your file was accepted as complete. If you ever need a ponaglenie, those two dates do half the work.
Waiting is the hardest part of any residence case, and you don't have to do it alone. Legal Solutions — 98% approval rate. Drop us a WhatsApp on +48 735 248 525 — we read every message.